BMC to publish suggestions of potential bidders

Taking one step forward to begin the construction of the much-debated coastal road between Princess street flyover in South Mumbai and Kandivali, the BMC has decided to publish the suggestions and queries it received from 35 potential contracting firms from various countries, for construction of the first phase of the coastal road.

On May 25, the BMC held a pre-invitation conference for the first stage of the Coastal Road, which is to run between Priyadarshini Park and Baroda Palace.

About 35 potential bidders participated in this conference. Firms from various countries including China, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Netherlands that have experience in the field suggested 114 changes to the terms and conditions of the contract before bidding for the tenders.

Commenting on this, an official said, “The conference was held for us to test the expectations of the international market. We received several suggestions and have been evaluating their merit. Since the beginning of this project, the civic body has insisted on keeping everything transparent so we will publish all the suggestions with the BMC’s response to them. We are yet to reconsider their implementation.”

Sources within the BMC said, “Most suggestions are quite basic and involve tweaking the terms of the contract or the qualification criteria a little. We are considering international experience in the field of such types of construction, so the process is tedious.”

Among the suggestions received for the project, bidders have suggested that experience of working with private bodies should also be taken into consideration, in place of the present condition of work experience related to tenders of government bodies.